


Paper Hearts

by Morgan (morgan32)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Other, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-02
Updated: 2009-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-02 05:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgan32/pseuds/Morgan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moments of lightness in a difficult day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paper Hearts

Elizabeth rolled her stiff shoulders as she walked to her quarters, hoping to loosen some of the kinks. It wasn't working.

It felt like the end of a very long day. It wasn't, not really. There was no major disaster, no shocks or sickness or unexplained events. The stresses of today weren't greater than usual but on this day, for some reason, everything seemed to affect her more. The arguments were more stressful than usual, the minor problems more irritating, the moments of lightness seemingly fewer.

Since the _Daedalus_ restored the contact between Atlantis and Earth, small things from Earth began to appear around Atlantis, particularly around the holidays. At Halloween someone hung a plastic jack-o-lantern from the Stargate, complete with a battery-powered "candle". Elizabeth had her suspicions but they never conclusively identified the culprit. Thanksgiving followed Halloween, and a turkey constructed of paper and wire (with what _might_ have been a Canadian flag painted on one wing) appeared. At Christmas everyone was grateful for the renewed contact with Earth and their loved ones back home, and again the mystery decorator struck, this time hanging Rudolph with a flashing red nose from the rail outside Elizabeth's office. No one admitted responsibility.

Today it was pink paper hearts scattered over computer terminals, over the tables in the mess hall, even over Elizabeth's desk. Again, she had her suspicions as to the identity of their Valentine prankster, but this time she knew the prankster had at least one accomplice: the job was too big for just one person to have managed it in secret.

But this time, Elizabeth wasn't amused by the decoration. Without all those paper hearts, she might have been able to ignore the date. Being single on Valentine's Day was no fun at all.

She paused in the corridor and ran her hands down her back, stretching her spine. She felt something pop inside and sighed with relief. Long day... She should be looking forward to her bed, but instead all she could think about was that she would be going to bed alone.

There were moments of lightness during the day, though. She smiled to herself, remembering Teyla's confusion over the paper hearts scattered everywhere at breakfast. She remembered John attempting to explain the significance of Valentine's Day: he was doing great until he'd got to the tradition of sending cards anonymously - a concept which seemed to make no sense to Teyla:

"Why send such a greeting and conceal your identity? How does a person respond?"

"Well...you try to guess. It's fun!"

Teyla shook her head, frowning. "I do not think it would be fun if I guessed incorrectly, Colonel Sheppard."

John had glanced Elizabeth's way then, his eyes pleading for help. Elizabeth just shrugged, telling him he was on his own on this one. Privately, Elizabeth agreed with Teyla. But it was lovely to exchange cards or gifts with someone you cared about. Anonymity was just pretence, for tradition's sake...and for fun.

The exchange stayed with her most of the day. By midday Elizabeth was eyeing each pink paper heart with resentment, remembering Valentine dinners with Simon, a wonderful weekend in Paris..,each memory making her own isolation seem more than it was. She _ was_ isolated, in a lonely-at-the-top way, but as she kept reminding herself, the truth was she wasn't alone here in Atlantis. She had friends, people to care about and who cared for her, people to laugh with.

On some days that wasn't quite enough.

Some days she felt her eyes drawn to...to someone...but it was part and parcel of her position that she couldn't go down that road. She couldn't pursue...anything.

Reaching the door to her quarters, Elizabeth pulled herself together and headed inside. The door closed behind her with a soft _whuff_ and the lights came on helpfully. She walked to the bed, planning to sit down and take off her boots as she did every night.

Lying on her pillow was a single red rose.

Elizabeth froze, staring at it.

An image flashed through her mind of someone carefully placing it there; the same someone she had been trying _not_ to think about every time she moved a paper heart out of her way.

Right on the heels of that came the wonder. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to bring a rose from Earth. She reached down to pick it up, bringing the half-opened bud automatically to her nose. The delicious scent filled her. It was _real_, not silk or plastic. A real red rose, somehow as fresh as the day it was cut.

Only then did Elizabeth realise this meant someone had been in her room. Someone broke into her private space. She knew she should have been disturbed by that, but the stem of the rose was cool in her fingers and the sweet, sweet smell did more for her aching shoulders than any massage. If the rose came from the person she hoped it did, Elizabeth didn't mind at all.

A tension she carried all day was lifted from her shoulders and she felt herself smile.

Elizabeth laid the red rose down beside her bed and began to sit down.

From behind her, a voice said, "I hope you guessed right."

She had.


End file.
